Had to be Spurs

After a breakthrough season, Jake Livermore has spoken about how it feels to play for the club he loves.

The midfielder made 38 appearances across all four of the competitions we were involved in, cementing his place in the first team squad.

Born in Enfield, Livermore has been with us since his schooldays. He grew up in a Spurs-supporting household and although Arsenal were among those clubs reported to be interested in adding him to their Academy, there was only one direction for him.

“It had to be Tottenham, it couldn’t have been anywhere else – and, thankfully, Spurs also wanted me,” he says. “I’m proud to be a Spurs player and when I was 16 and told that they would take me on full-time, I could not have been happier.

“I was also fortunate that all the family love Spurs, including my father and uncle who were particularly keen. And my mother Heather was a major influence in those early days when she would just tell me to believe, make it happen and be worthy of it when it did.

“So I shared my dream with all of them and their delight in seeing me get this far makes it even better for me. I’ve always been a confident type of person and I agree that that’s certainly helped me along the way but you still need people behind you and I’m glad that I was able to justify their belief.

“When you’re growing up you have so many friends and players you’re playing with who don’t make it and it’s difficult because you sometimes think that you’ll be one of them. But I owe a lot to my family to keeping me going and keeping me strong.”